SB2586

SECTION 1. Chapter 142, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new part to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"Part . APIARIES

§142-A Citation and purpose. (a) This part shall be known and may be cited as the "Apiary Act of 2008".

(b) Honey bees are kept in beehives by beekeepers throughout the State. These honey bees perform a pollination function that is essential to the propagation of many species of flowering plants including many agricultural crops, wildflowers, and forest plants. Therefore, the State should take appropriate actions to help assure the continued availability of an adequate population of honey bee pollinators.

Honey bees, like other animal species, are afflicted by a variety of contagious diseases and pests that can cause serious population reductions. Honey bees naturally and instinctively interact with bees from other colonies and are vulnerable to the transmission of diseases and pests. Persons involved in the keeping of bees can engage in beekeeping practices that will have a real and direct impact on honey bees and beekeeping in the State.

The purpose of this part is to develop regulatory programs for beekeeping activities to help protect honey bees from diseases, pests, and other threats that can seriously reduce the availability of honey bee pollinators.

§142-B Definitions. As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:

"Abandoned apiaries" means an apiary that has not been subjected to at least the minimal beekeeping practices necessary to maintain the bees in a healthy, productive, and safe condition to protect honey bees and beekeepers in surrounding areas.

"Advisory committee" means the apicultural technical advisory committee established under this part.

"Apiary" means a collection of one or more colonies of bees in beehives at a location. A building or room in a building is considered to be the location of an apiary only if one or more beehives containing colonies of honey bees are housed within that building.

"Apiary inspector" means a person with relevant qualifications and beekeeping training who is employed by, or working under contract with the department of agriculture for the purpose of implementing regulatory programs as directed by the state apiarist.

"Appliance" means any apparatus, tool, machine, or other device used in handling and manipulating bees, honey, or wax that may be used in an apiary or in transporting bees and their products and apiary supplies.

"Bee disease" or "pest" means a condition in which a colony is infested or infected with a bacterial, fungal, viral, or parasitic condition or an organism that can affect the well-being of a colony.

"Beekeeper" means any individual, association, corporation, or other entity who deliberately provides nesting sites for colonies of honey bees and attempts to establish and maintain colonies of honey bees at a location.

"Bees" or "honey bees" mean any developmental stage of any sub-species of the species Apis mellifera.

"Certification" means a voluntary training program approved by the department of agriculture that when successfully completed authorizes a beekeeper to detect, identify, and control regulated bee diseases and pests in colonies under the management of that beekeeper.

"Certified beekeeper" means any person who has successfully met the requirements of a voluntary certification program for beekeepers as approved by the State.

"Chairperson" means the chairperson of the board of agriculture.

"Colony" means all of the bees living together as one social unit and may include the bee equipment in which the bees are living.

"Department" means the department of agriculture.

"Feral bees" means honey bees not kept in a beehive provided by a beekeeper and whose nest sites are usually located in a cavity within a tree or a building.

"Hive" or "beehive" means a container or structure used by a beekeeper to provide a cavity in which a colony of bees is expected to establish a permanent nest.

"Registered apiary" means an apiary location that has been properly registered with the department as required by this part.

"Registered beekeeper" means a beekeeper whose apiaries are properly registered with the department.

"Regulated bee disease" or "regulated pest" means a bee disease or pest that presents a significant threat to a population of honey bees and for which regulatory action can be taken to mitigate that threat.

"State apiarist" means that person employed by the department who has the qualifications prescribed by this part and has been designated as state apiarist by the chairperson.

§142-C State apiarist. (a) The chairperson shall appoint a state apiarist without regard to chapters 76 and 89. The state apiarist shall be responsible for the apiary work of the department and with assistants, is charged with the duty of enforcing this part.

The state apiarist, at a minimum, shall have attained a college degree in one of the biological sciences and a minimum of five years apiary experience. The state apiarist shall be responsible for developing, implementing, and administering the apiary program under this part and shall have the duty of enforcing the rules adopted pursuant thereto.

(b) The chairperson may appoint apiary assistants, inspectors, and other employees without regard to chapter 76, subject to legislative approval, and prescribe their duties and delegate to apiary inspectors and other employees such powers and authority as may be deemed proper within the limits of the power and authority conferred upon the chairperson under this part.

(c) The state apiarist and apiary inspectors may provide educational literature and conduct training programs for beekeeping on topics related to prevention, detection, and the control of bee diseases and pests and other topics that will help beekeepers maintain needed populations of honey bees. The literature and training programs may be developed and conducted in cooperation with the University of Hawaii.

(d) The state apiarist and all apiary inspectors may own colonies of bees and engage in beekeeping activities on their own time. Their beekeeping activities shall be subject to the same regulation that is applied to all other beekeepers. The department shall not prohibit those activities but may develop guidelines to avoid interference with work responsibilities and to prevent conflicts of interest.

§142-D Cooperative agreements. Insofar as not inconsistent with state law, the chairperson may enter into cooperative agreements or grants with any person, county, department, board, official, or authority of other states, or the United States for the inspection, control, and eradication of infectious or contagious diseases and regulated pests of honey bees.

§142-E Registration of apiaries. (a) Every beekeeper owning one or more colonies of bees shall register each apiary location by January 1, 2009, and every three years thereafter. Upon establishment of a new apiary location, it shall be the duty of the owners or operators of the apiary to register the new locations within thirty days.

(b) If an unregistered apiary is found, the state apiarist or any apiary inspector shall make a reasonable effort to locate the owner of the bees and notify the beekeeper by means of a registered letter of the registration requirements and the consequences of noncompliance.

(c) The state apiarist shall issue to each beekeeper with one or more registered apiaries a unique registration number that shall be used for apiary identification purposes.

§142-F Moveable frames. Each beekeeper is required to provide moveable frames in all hives used by that beekeeper to contain bees so that the frame can be removed from the hive and inspected for any regulated disease and pest. Any beekeeper with a colony of bees living in any beehive or other container that does not have moveable frames may be ordered by the state apiarist to transfer the bees into a hive with moveable frames within a specified period of time. If the beekeeper fails to make the transfer within the specified time period, the state apiarist may confiscate the bees and hive.

§142-G Inspection program. Insofar as not inconsistent with state law, the state apiarist, assisted by apiary inspectors shall establish and implement a program for the inspection of apiaries throughout the State for the purpose of detecting regulated bee diseases and pests and for implementing control measures to minimize the adverse impacts of those diseases and pests on the honey bee population in the State.

The apiary inspection program shall be conducted in accordance with standards and procedures developed by the state apiarist.

Insofar as not inconsistent with state law, the state apiarist shall require or supervise the treatment, destruction, or disposition of diseased bees, contaminated bee equipment, or bee supplies. Apiary inspectors authorized by the state apiarist may enter any public or private property for the purpose of conducting an inspection of an apiary located on that property; provided the inspection is consistent with state law. The inspector shall make a reasonable effort to notify a beekeeper prior to a planned inspection.

§142-H Sale or movement of bees. No bees may be sold, offered for sale, moved, transported, shipped, or delivered within the State, unless the bees have been inspected by an appropriate official of the State and certified to be apparently free of infectious or contagious regulated bee diseases and pests.

§142-I Duty to report disease or pest; authority to inspect. (a) If a beekeeper knows that a colony of bees has a regulated bee disease or pest, the beekeeper shall immediately report to a state apiary inspector all facts known about the bee's disease or pests.

(b) If an apiary inspector has reason to believe that a feral colony of bees may be harboring any regulated bee disease or pest, the inspector may enter onto any property, public or private, to locate and examine that feral colony of bees; provided the entry is consistent with state law.

§142-J Quarantine. (a) The state apiarist and apiary inspectors may declare a quarantine on any apiary found to be infected or infested with any regulated bee disease or pest. Immediately after the apiary is declared infected or infested, a quarantine notice shall be presented to the beekeeper that shall include specific instructions as to required actions by the beekeeper. The appliances directly associated with that apiary shall be under quarantine and shall be subject to regulatory actions imposed by the state apiarist.

The chairperson may declare a geographical area quarantine in any county, region, or the State where a regulated bee disease or pest is found in a sufficient number of apiaries that the infestation can be considered endemic. However, bees may not be moved from the quarantine area except by permission from the state apiarist or an apiary inspector.

(b) It is unlawful for any person in the State to participate in, or conduct a deliberate act that exposes non-diseased honey bees to a known source of any regulated bee disease or pest or to any substance commonly known to kill bees, except as permitted by the department.

Deliberate acts that are prohibited under this part include, but are not limited to:

(1) Placing in a location that is accessible to non-diseased honey bees any beeswax combs, beekeeping equipment, honey, or other substance known to be attractive to honey bees and capable of transmitting bee diseases or pests and known to have been in contact with, or associated with sources of regulated bee diseases or pests;

(2) Placing in a location that is accessible to non-diseased honey bees any honey, sugar syrup, corn syrup, or other substance known to be attractive to bees and to which some pesticide or other substance harmful to honey bees has been added; or

(3) Producing, making, releasing, or otherwise causing any spray, smoke, fog, dust, or other substance to enter a beehive for the purpose of killing the bees therein except as requested by the owner of the bees or as required by a state regulatory order.

§142-K Certification program. (a) The department may establish a certification program whereby beekeepers who successfully complete the requirements of the program are certified to have demonstrated the knowledge and skills needed to effectively detect, identify, and control regulated bee diseases and pests. The state apiarist shall develop and administer any regulatory certification program that is established under this part.

(b) The beekeeper certification program shall be a voluntary program and applicants who successfully complete the program requirements shall become certified beekeepers. Each person who becomes certified shall be granted certain privileges with regard to regulatory requirements adopted pursuant to this part.

§142-L Used beekeeping equipment. No person shall sell or give to any other person any used beekeeping equipment until the equipment has been sanitized by a method approved by the state apiarist. This section shall not apply to equipment that is occupied by live bees.

§142-M Inspection certificates. The state apiarist and all apiary inspectors shall intercept any person transporting colonies or appliances to determine if the person has the required inspection certificates.

§142-N Penalty. Any person violating this part, any rule adopted, or order or notice given pursuant to this part, or who forges, counterfeits, destroys, or wrongfully or fraudulently uses any certificate, permit, notice, or other like document provided under this part, or who impedes, hinders, or otherwise prevents, or attempts to prevent, the chairperson or the chairperson's authorized agent from performing an official duty pursuant to this part, may be fined not more than $1,000 for each violation.

§142-O Disposition of funds. All fees, fines, and proceeds resulting from the sale of seized properties collected under this part shall be paid into the general fund and the same are appropriated exclusively to the department to be used in carrying out this part.

§142-P Experimental apiaries. The state apiarist shall establish or authorize the establishment of apiaries for experimental purposes associated with research on, or evaluation of conditions related to any bee disease or pest.

§142-Q Disposition of confiscated bees and beehives. All bees and beehives confiscated by the state apiarist shall be destroyed by a method approved by the department if the state apiarist determines that the confiscated property is infested with a regulated disease or pest to such an extent that it presents a significant and unacceptable threat to bees in surrounding areas. The state apiarist may use or may authorize the use of confiscated property for experimental purposes. Otherwise the property may be donated to any college or university within the State that requests the property for research or educational purposes or disposed of at the discretion of the chairperson.

§142-R Preventive measures. After the inspection of infected or infested bees or fixtures or handling diseased bees, the state apiarist or assistants, before leaving the premises on which the disease is found, or proceeding to any other apiary, shall take such measures as to prevent the spread of the disease or pests by infected or infested material adhering to that person's body or clothing, or any tools or appliances used by the state apiarist or any assistants that have come in contact with infected or infested materials.

§142-S Unlawful activities. It is unlawful for any person to knowingly give false or misleading information in any matter pertaining to the enforcement of this part, or to resist, impede, or hinder the state apiarist or any authorized apiary inspector in the discharge of duties as described in this part.

§142-T Honey storage and handling. (a) Honey containers and beekeeping equipment that are wet with honey shall be stored, transported, and handled in such a way that non-diseased honey bees will not gain access to that honey.

(b) No candy or other food containing honey shall be used in queen mailing cages.

§142-U Rules. The department shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91 to effectuate this part.

§142-V Charges. The chairperson may charge a fee for the use of equipment and materials in providing technical assistance to beekeepers.

§142-W Indemnity for destruction. The chairperson shall establish procedures for the payment of indemnities for honey bee colonies destroyed under the authority of this part. Indemnity under this section is not intended to be a full reimbursement but a partial compensation based on, but not limited to, the value of the colonies and the availability of funds for this purpose. Indemnification shall be disallowed if the owner is in violation of this part."

SECTION 2. In codifying the new sections added by section 1 of this Act, the revisor of statutes shall substitute appropriate section numbers for the letters used in designating the new sections in this Act.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2586
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII